Two words mightier than iron
by Where'sTheFood
Summary: For Gajevy Lovefest 2019 day 2 - "kiss me". The war against Alvarez is too close and Gajeel promises Levy that they will return to the guild when the war is over. A.k.a. Alvarez arc, before the battle against Bloodman, the chapter/episode of "you're under arrest for complaining too much"


**Setting**: Alvarez arc, before the battle against Bloodman, the chapter/episode of "you're under arrest for complaining too much"

**Words**: 1.8k

**Prompt Lovefest19**: Day 2- Kiss me

**A/N:** It's been a while guys! As usual, I'm late for the event lol! Thank you so much to ranunculus-fox for beta reading this :D Hope you guys enjoy this little thing I wrote! SFW even if it's for lovefest :)

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"Kiss me"

It's a whisper and a clamour. It's a plea and a command. It's everything he wanted to hear and yet Gajeel's world is turned upside down by her words.

Figures. Words have always been her power, her domain, her weapon.

Yet, she doesn't wield them to strike Gajeel down, but he's still close to collapsing on his knees in front of her. Her words are always kind but powerful enough to bring down his iron walls, the ones he had carefully crafted around his heart.

_Stay away._ His walls had proclaimed a long time ago in cast-iron forged with the fire of his hate and cruelty.

But with each flick of her eyelashes that revealed bright hazel eyes, a new crack appeared on his walls. By the time they were on Tenrou Island, his walls were all but non-existent, yet he still believed he had them. Gajeel needed to believe it, he had survived within these walls; a dragon without a castle is a beast without a purpose. What was the dragonslayer without his barriers but a simple man with nothing to offer but iron fists and roars to the most amazing woman in the world?

Time passed since Tenrou, and he found himself sharing a living space with Levy and Lily in the Council's Headquarters. New walls rose around his heart, taller, mightier, sturdier than before. Instead of hate and cruelty, these new barriers were built from self-hatred and insecurities. She was too good for him, and he was a bastard that didn't deserve the love she was offering him so willingly. Besides, he reasoned, it had everything to do with her angelic nature and not with him; it couldn't be that she loved him. She was someone always willing to love everything. She loved every book, every fictional character she met in the lines of ink and paper, she trusted every stranger on the street and believed the world could be a kind place where anyone would enjoy the simplest things life had to offer, like a cup of coffee shared among friends, or the smell of the early blossoms in spring.

Gajeel loved her for this; he _loves _her for this. She was so simple and yet so amazingly complicated at the same time. A puzzle his mind and heart were still trying to decipher after all this time, and he enjoyed every single new detail he learned about her. Like how she is not a morning person, or how her smile widens when the early stars shine in the night sky; how her eyes light with something fiercer than the breaths of the fire dragons, or how her soul rejoices when a mission is completed with no major injuries involved.

She was everything he had ever wished for in a life partner yet she was also everything he had never thought he needed. He hated himself for loving her so much and his self-hatred only grew when he was reminded of how they've met. But the simplest things like one of her smiles thrown his way or the blush that tinted her cheeks when he was a bit too close to her, made him believe that maybe he was worth it. That maybe this, whatever it was, was _right_. That he could spend his life by her side, no labels attached, even when he was oh so willing to go down on one knee and offer her the world, a promise forged in an iron ring. He would be content to be by her side as long as she would let him.

But now, with the war against Alvarez looming over them and the battlefield so close to their campsite, Gajeel felt true fear for the first time in his life. Not even when Metalicana left had he lost his sleep like he did this night. Nightmares were familiar to the mage who wallowed in self-hatred since the Fairy Tail emblem was tattooed on his left shoulder. But this night, he couldn't even close his eyes without seeing the image of a blue-haired fairy lying face down unmoving on a flower field covered by snow and her blood staining deeply into the white layer turning it crimson.

He had sought some comfort in looking at the horizon, making sure no enemy would ambush them as the rest of the team slept snuggled close to the small bonfire to chase away the chill of the night. But he had sensed how restless she was since the moment their journey to the North began. It was no surprise when her shuffling steps came closer to him, the snow crunched under her light feet.

What surprised him were her words. Not that it was something uncommon, yet this time, her words lacked the usual breath of kindness and fierceness laced between each letter. Instead, insecurities traced the shape of her words, faintly reminding him of the essence that strengthens his iron walls. She worried about the battle and feared she wouldn't be strong enough to deal with this enemy. Gajeel could still hear her conviction underneath her self-doubt. She wouldn't back down from the fight, even when she thought the enemy to be extraordinary; she would go all out to protect her guild, her friends, her family.

That's what terrified Gajeel the most. The image of the blue-haired fairy on the flower field covered by crimson snow came back to his mind and he shivered.

Not a chance. He wouldn't let that happen. He would protect her; they would come out victorious from this battle. Fairy Tail would prevail so the iron dragonslayer could spend his afternoons at every bookshop in Magnolia accompanying a short blue-haired fairy in search for the latest novels she craved for so much.

He doesn't really know how to convey this though. Words were always her thing, not his. So, he let his magic flow, and it forms the iron pillars that now surround her. But she isn't afraid, maybe annoyed, but not fearful, not from him, not anymore since that day he took Laxus's lightning strike on her behalf. He leans close to her, maybe too close for someone who swears to be content with just spending time with this tiny fairy, with just being friends with her. Then, he makes a promise, hidden among his weird threats of imprisonment.

Thanks to any deity above she gets it, she deciphers the hidden message as easily as she has decoded ancient tomes. Then, she smiles at him, soft lips tilting up and eyes shining impossibly bright and it's all for him. With no one else around, he takes his time to commit to memory every single detail of her ethereal features. His hands twitch, yearning to hold her, to embrace her so carefully, to get tangled in her soft blue waves and rub gentle circles on her back.

As he's willing his hands to still and his mind to lock away his fantasies, she utters two words and his world turns on its axis as if the ground had exploded under his feet.

"Kiss me," Levy's soft voice commands him. She takes a step forward. He can almost feel her warmth so close to his body.

He notices it, of course, he notices it! How her eyes flick from his eyes to his lips and linger there, longing, yearning for something that could be but requires an enormous amount of courage to reach for it.

Gajeel always prided himself of his strong walls and iron hide. But two words, two words from the fairy that could will any letter to life with a flick of her fingers, had his barriers vanishing. They didn't crumble as Gajeel had expected. No, if they had crumbled to dust it would have been devastating, he would have felt vulnerable, exposed, raw to the world to mock the simple man that hid behind these walls. Instead, her words lifted his walls, they went up in light specs willingly and beautifully until they mixed with the stars above and shone in the galaxies hidden in her hazel eyes. His iron walls had kept the entire world at arms' length, Levy included. But the tender breath infused in her words made him see, for the first time, the path that lay ahead of him, where Levy stood with an extended hand for him to take and a gentle smile on her lips. There was no destruction, no havoc, no despair, there was only peace as his barriers lifted, as the blindfold tied securely around his heart was undone and he could finally see the eyes that shone a bit brighter only when they looked at him.

There is no hesitation when he dissipates the distance between them and leans even closer to her. With their breaths mingling together, he waits for a baited second, searching her eyes for the smallest trace of hesitation.

He finds none.

His lips seal over hers in a gentle caress, while his hands find their purchase at the back of her head and the small of her back. He breathes her in and everything, for once, feels right in Gajeel's life. Everything falls in place. A second that feels like an eternity yet too short for him makes him forget their beginning, his mistakes, his hatred and cruelty, his self-loathing and insecurities, the war looming over them threatening their future. Everything feels right just by holding Levy in his arms and kissing her soft lips with such tenderness that even Gajeel doubted himself capable of.

When their lips part, he looks at her with half-lidded eyes, begging to anyone, anything, that this is real and not just another clever hoax created by his mind. Because he had dreamt about this a thousand times if not more. But never, in all those scenarios, had his mind been able to portray the utter joy that radiates from her smile in this moment. She is beautiful, so full of love, of light, of kindness and oh so willing to share it with Gajeel.

He is such a lucky bastard.

Then, he notices something else. Just a quick flick of his eyes to her lips and he sees it. The promise he's made, sealed on her lips. A promise for a future together, for a family, for happiness.

He cannot hide the smirk that tugs at his lips. She is a cunning little fairy, a renowned script mage across all Fiore. She knows the power of words. And she also knows a kiss to be stronger than words thrown to the wind. No war, no enemy, no disaster would be able to keep Gajeel from tasting his fairy's lips one more time, in a peaceful moment, in the comfort of their shared home, in the quiet of the night.

_I love you, Levy_.

He lacks the courage, or the ability, or maybe both, to utter the words. But by any divine being that is looking after them, Levy understands him. Words were her prowess and she had learned long ago how to read Gajeel like an open book, her most favourite book.

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**A/N**: Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoy this :) leave a comment if you did! I'll try my best to write more often now that I have a least chaotic semester haha

**WTF (Where's The Food?)**


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